Unfortunately, most of us know more about our failure than our freedom. And sadly, many Christians are trapped in a cycle of guilt and shame. Constantly keeping track of their sins while missing the revolutionary gift of grace. But today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindahl explains how we've been liberated from sin's power through Christ's death and resurrection. Even so, we often choose to remain imprisoned in old patterns.
In today's study, we'll discover how to replace spiritual defeat with daily victory and how to trade our exhausting preoccupation with shame. for the empowering reality of grace. Romans 6 includes a passage that is unfortunately not known that well by God's people. And it should be. For a few moments, I want you to simply listen to the reading of God's Word.
from the first 14 verses of Romans 6. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be. How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
Or Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death? Therefore, we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, Certainly, we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection. Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with him in order that our body of sin might be done away with.
So that we would no longer be slaves to sin. For he who has died, is freed from sin.
Now, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him. Knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again, death no longer is master. over him. For the death that he died He died to sin. Once for all.
But the life that he lives, he lives to God. Even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin. but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts. Do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness.
but present yourselves to God. as those alive from the dead. and your members as instruments of righteousness. to God. For sin shall not be master over you.
For you are not under law. But under grace, You're listening to Insight for Living. To dig deeper into the book of Romans on your own, be sure to purchase our Searching the Scriptures Bible Study Workbook. by going to insight.org slash offer. Chuck titled today's message, Dying to Live.
Chances are good that most of us have never witnessed with our own eyes human slavery. Not in raw reality. Oh, I realize we have all read books about it and perhaps seen live theater. Where such subjects as that are portrayed, and no doubt watched television docudramas. That presented, but we've never seen a human being standing on a slave block.
Bidded for by someone purchasing him or her as he would a mule. I can not think of anything that is more. Uh unjust Brutal or ugly. As an American, I find myself on occasion not just confused, but. Thinking of that as unconscionable.
That our forefathers were brave enough to fight for our liberty. from the motherland of England only to turn around and most of them Have slaves. Enslaving others. without the slightest hesitation. Apart from the haunting specter of guilt.
Think of it. Free citizens Owning slaves. Frankly, the triangles will never be mentally congruent. It took a bloody war between the states to break the yoke of slavery. It took a president with backbone, clear thinking, courageous at heart.
to finally acknowledge the truth of it. And by New Year's Day, 1863, releasing an Emancipation Proclamation. announcing And it would be made law. that slaves be freed. Not only willing to declare it, but If necessary, and in fact he did, to die for that.
Interestingly, it was not until long after his death. December before Congress finally brought it into action. And the word became the bold headlines of newspapers. across these United States. Slavery legally abolished.
Read the headlines. The news swept across Capitol Hill and down the Shenandoah. And over the Appalachians. and to the back roads of the Carolinas. Deep into the plantations of Georgia and Alabama.
Mississippi. and Louisiana. Texas. The cotton fields. The word was out.
Slaves are free. But there wasn't a plantation owner that wanted to hear such a thing. They had operated for a long time under the old motto, you keep them ignorant, you keep them in the field. And so, with the threat of death upon those slaves. The plantation owners held on to them as long as they could.
Heartbreaking stories. But to add tragedy to the scene, Many slaves, knowing that they had been freed, chose to remain. living in the shacks and squalor of slavery. Admittedly, Many of them would die if they attempted to escape. Remarkably They stayed there till they died and even their children as well.
Isn't it amazing that Those who had been freed. chose to remain enslaved. If you think that is tragic, I'll tell you something that is equally bad, if not worse. Christians who have been set free choosing to remain enslaved. Finding more comfort and security in slavery than.
Delight and joy in the risks of liberty, we remain there.
Some of you hearing my voice today look as though you were free, but you are enslaved. Fact is, you know more about your sin than you do about your righteousness. Your preoccupation is with the things you do wrong, and you anticipate it, and sure enough, the end of your day is filled with going through a list of the things that you have failed at, as you claim by memory, 1 John 1:9. Most of you know the verse by heart. It's a wonderful verse.
It's a marvelous verse, but it's after the fact. How many of you know Romans 6, 13 by heart? Neither yield your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those who are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. You're no longer a slave to sin. You are freed.
from its power. The old Plantation owner has nothing on Satan. Satan has been in charge of our lives all through our lost condition, and he will hold on to us as long as he can. He will make you afraid of his demons. He will haunt you with specter of guilt and shame.
Trying to get you to believe you're still under the old master when in fact you are not. You have been freed. The great emancipator at Calvary has set you free. You have come out of the grave with him victorious over sin and death. We who have no fear of death often have to admit we still live under the cloud of sin.
Thinking, well, it's inevitable. I am just committed to it, and so the old things that once bound me will still bind me. There's no escape from it. I just know I'll get to go to heaven someday. That is no way to live your life.
When you were converted, you were delivered from the power of sin. Placed into Christ, His authority became your authority. His righteousness became your righteousness. And positionally, you are as righteous as He. In the eyes of God, Which means are you ready for a shock?
You can literally live days of your life without succumbing to sin. In some circles that's heretical. You say, well, you don't know me. You could see my track record. You know what?
You don't know me. It's no better than yours. The difference is information. If you don't know you've been freed, then you'll live like a slave. But once you know you're freed and you consider it true and you act upon it by presenting yourself to God, it is remarkable what a difference it will make in your day.
Rather than beginning it with the dread that you will fall back into the same old habits of yesteryear, what are you doing there when in fact God's given you a brand new enablement? you never had before. Sun came into your life. And here sits Romans 5:20 in the Bible, waiting to be claimed. Where sin abounded, grace.
Superabounded, where sin increased, grace overshadowed it. Where sin won the day, grace won the victory. Where sin had its way, grace eclipsed its power and authority. And the result is you are able to live above the drag and the drain of sin. If you only knew.
How to do that.
So here we are in Romans chapter 6, the turning point in the letter. Up till now, it's been all about sin, our depravity. Christ's death for us. Our salvation by grace apart from works, lest anyone should boast, we are now freed from sin, we are now freed from its authority, we are now in Christ. What does that mean?
There were some who read Paul's words in Romans 5:20 and thought, yep, there's Paul. Antinomianism that he is. Believing as he does that we can just live as we please and let it all ride, just do whatever. That's not grace. That's heresy.
If that's your idea of grace, you've not been well taught. In fact, the latter half of Romans chapter 6 is about that. The first half is just informing us that we are free. urging us to live. Bye that.
Truth. In fact, there are two questions when you get to chapter six that I'd like you to note. Verse 1. And verse 15, they look alike, but they are different. Verse 1.
Are we to continue in sin? That grace may increase. Since it says, where sin abounded, grace abounds all the more, verse 20 of chapter 5, should I now live under sin and under its authority, somehow hoping that grace will come to my rescue? May it never be, says the apostle as he begins verse 2: may it never be. Verse 1 of chapter 6 of Romans is a question that is addressed to those who fail to claim their liberty and go on living like slaves.
Chapter 6, verse 15. is another question. Shall we sin because we're not under law but under grace? This question is asked to those who take their liberty too far. and missed the whole point of grace.
Verses one to fourteen are about nullifying grace. Verses 15 to 23. or about Abusing grace. We'll get there.
So give me time. Don't leave today thinking I'm freeing you up to live as you please. The Christian life is never about living as you please. It's about living as Christ pleases, and that's why grace plays such a major role. You couldn't do that without Christ's power.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's mark a few words in Romans chapter 6. Get your pencil ready and mark the word no in verse 3. Do you not know That all of us have been baptized into Christ Jesus, have been baptized into his death. Mark the word no.
Verse six, knowing this. Verse 9, knowing that Christ There's something we must know. Before the slave could ever act on the Emancipation Proclamation, the slave needed to know about the Emancipation. Before you can ever act on the freedom you have in Christ, you need to know that you've been freed. Verses 3 through 10 talk about knowing that.
Look at verse 11. Even so, Mark that word consider. Maybe your Bible reads, reckon yourselves. Even so, consider yourselves. to be dead to sin.
So, in order to carry out the victorious Christian life, we must know.
some things, verses 3 through 10. then we must consider them as true They're no longer theoretical, they're reality. And then verse 13, do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God. The word present is the third. There are some things we're to know.
There are some things we're to consider. And there are some things we are to present. Today, if you will gather, if you will capture the truth of what's going to be taught in Romans 6:1 to 14. it will revolutionize your walk. with Christ.
It'll take away the shame, it'll take away the guilt, it'll remove the fear, it'll obliterate the worry. Because you will see yourself in Christ. and therefore pleasing to God. That will free you like you've never been freed before. First of all, we need to understand that there's been a change in management.
A change in management. We're now under new management. It's like the store has been rebuilt. It's like the people inside are new people. It's like a whole new restaurant has opened up.
In our lives, it's like an entirely different cafeteria, an entirely different choice. That is now ours. We're under a new management. We're no longer enslaved. A brand new thing has occurred.
In fact, verse 2 asks a question: how shall we who died to sin still live in it? meaning still live under its authority. Great question. It raises another question. When did I die?
to sin. I can just hear some of you saying, if you could read my journal, You wouldn't read the story of a person who's died to sin. As a matter of fact, if you're a Christian, I would be, tragically. Reading. your journal.
and realizing what you don't know. Just as we were in Adam when Adam sinned and his sinning impacted us.
So when Christ died, we were in Christ theoretically, positionally, and His death over sin became our death over sin. His resurrection from the power of sin became our resurrection and enablement of power from the sin that once controlled us and enslaved us. Coming to Christ means that we take on the new management of victory. Before we were addicted. Before we were swarming and lost and in the swamp of our old nature, now the old nature.
within us has a new authority. A new master. And it isn't Satan, even though he wants you to think it is.
So we need to know this. Verse three: Do you not know? That all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death? Therefore, we have been buried with him through baptism into death.
So that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
Now, as soon as you read baptized, you think of water. Unfortunately, That is erroneous. And if you think of water baptism as that which is referenced here, you'll miss it. This is a spirit baptism.
Some baptisms in the Bible are wet.
Some are dry. This is a dry one. This is what happens when you are converted. But you need to understand the meaning of the word baptizo or bapto, which means to dip. It was used in the first century of one who worked with fabric.
clothing who would dip the fabric in a dye. Let's say the fabric was white and it's dipped in a blue dye. He was said to have baptized the garment or the fabric. And when it comes up out of the dye, it has changed its identity. from white.
to blue. When you and I are converted, when we come to Christ understanding He paid the full penalty for our sins, and we are then tried. trusting in Him for eternal life. We are dipped in. into him.
And we become identified with him. You see it down in verse 5. If we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection. Uh Force yourself to think. Force yourself to think.
When I came to Christ, Things happened that I didn't experience. with my feelings. But I now see in the scriptures this has occurred. I have been crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I.
But Christ lives in me, and the life that I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I now live under his power, under his authority. I now have a new master. If you will, I have a new husband. I have a new partner in life.
And it's Christ. And now that I have been buried with him, all of that power of sin. Has been removed because it has no power over Christ, it has no power over me. The difference in Christ and me is that I still have an old nature. And I'm prone to sin.
I realize that.
So are you. But we're not Obligated to sin. We choose to sin. Verse six, knowing this, that our old self. was crucified with him.
Why? In order that the body of sin might be done away, our body of sin is like the vehicle carrying the nature. And that nature, that power that once held over us. is no longer operative. Coming to Christ means that that Power of sin has been rendered inoperative.
In fact, that's why he says, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin, for he who has died is freed from sin. Not only do dead men tell no tales, dead men fall to no temptation. Dead men have no interest in that. How does this work its way out? I begin my day in this way.
Lord, you are my Savior and my God. I am your child. I am liberated, and I am dependent upon you for your power. Take control of me. I yield to you.
I give you the controls of my life. I don't know what the day holds. You know everything that the day will hold. I don't know what temptations will come my way. You give me strength when I come into temptation.
You give me the strength to restrain. And I'll remember, Lord, that your power is at work. I will not yield by your power. I'll say no to that. When I'm tempted to say what I shouldn't say, I'll be restrained from saying it, and I trust you to restrain me.
When I'm tempted to worry about something that I can't control, I will trust you to take over and handle that, which I can't change. I will trust you, I will lean on you. I am dead in Christ and I have the power of His resurrection and I claim that today. See verse 9. Knowing that Christ has been raised from the dead is never to die again.
Death is no longer master over him. For the death that he died, he died to sin once for all. The life that he lives, he lives to God. That's true of me as well. When Christ died, I died.
When Christ was raised, I was raised.
So now how does it impact me? Verse 11, consider yourselves dead to sin. Reckon it as true. In your mind, see it as a reality. Count on it.
Lean on it. Death no longer is master over me, and I tell myself regularly I am freed from that by the grace of God. And I now calculate this, I take it into account, and my sinful habits have therefore been defeated and disabled and deprived of authority over me. I am under a new mast.
Well, place a bookmark right here in Romans chapter 6 because Chuck Swindahl has much more to show us. Chuck titled today's message, Dying to Live. Here at Insight for Living, we can't possibly know what kind of issues you bring to this program every day. Maybe right now you're very concerned about a loved one perhaps a son, a daughter, or maybe a grandchild who's lost their way. Maybe you carry some personal regrets.
Whatever the case, we invite you to double down on your study in Paul's letter to the Romans and to draw from the wellspring of grace offered in passages like Romans chapter 6. To guide your personal study, the Insight mobile app provides all of Chuck's Sermons for the Romans series for free. This allows you to hear each sermon in the series from start to finish at your convenience. Just download the Insight mobile app from your favorite app store. And today, we're pleased to offer a special PDF download that features the fifth chapter in Chuck's biography of Abraham.
In this highly personal chapter, Chuck describes how Abraham cultivated his friendship with God and the benefits that followed. Chuck wrote, The Lord has your future blessings all planned out. ready to be released when your spirit is mature enough to receive them. God, like a good friend, remains available to offer help for today. This time-limited offer is available to our current monthly companions and to anyone who decides to become a monthly companion today.
A monthly companion agrees to give an automated contribution every month. You set the amount that's best for you. And you can do that right now by calling 800-772-8888. Again, we'll say thanks by providing a PDF download of the fifth chapter in Chuck's biography of Abraham. Just go to insight.org slash monthly companion.
or call us at 800-772-8888. I'm Bill Meyer. Join us when Chuck Swindahl continues to describe the power of God's amazing grace. Thursday on Insight for Living. The preceding message, Dying to Live, was copyrighted in 2007, 2010, and 2025, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2025 by Charles R.
Swindahl, Incorporated. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.
